Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently? - <AUTHOR> Bonus points: What's some roadblocks or bottlenecks you've identified in the process?<p>Even more bonus points: Try to help someone else in the thread with their goals, especially clearing out those roadblocks and bottlenecks. <comment><USER3> I want to leave mommy's house and start living as a "digital nomad", moving from country to country every few months as I want. I want to know the world a little better.

The most obvious roadblock is making money along the way. My plan is to do it by launching a small web product, blogging about the travel, working as a local on countries where I'm allowed to, and doing some freelance programming work.

I have at least one year to save some money and get started working on these ideas. I'm sure it will not be easy, but I want give it a try :)

<comment><USER4> I spent nov/dec 09 in thailand trying to do the digital nomad thing. I was travelling while studying though, not working for money. Few things to consider:

(1) Peace and quiet costs money. You may find it difficult to work if you stay anywhere that the backpacker crowd congregates.

(2) The longer you stay somewhere the cheaper it gets. An example from my experience - I spent a month in chaing mai in northern thailand where I rented an apartment. Per night it would have cost £18 if I was staying for a few days. Staying a month meant they gave me a tenancy agreement and it worked out as about £8 p/night plus electricity which was about £15 for the month.

You might want to try spending a few nights at different youth hostels in the city you intend to stay, then find an apartment for a month or two in the area you like the most.

(3) Food is both massively over-priced and pretty crap if you buy it in the hotel or nearby restaurants to where you are staying. Try and go further afield to eat where the locals do. Don't be put off by street food - it's good and cheap.

(4) Take plenty of time to just relax and go with the flow. try and put yourself out there and make friends. Avoid tourists attractions and guide books. I went to thailand intending to do exactly this but somehow didn't quite let myself go as much as I should have done. I've regretted it since.

Above all, actually go and do it. Most people who say they want to never really do.

I'm currently trying to build myself a money making web app that will allow me to get back on the road too. Good luck :)

<comment><USER5> eating what the locals eat, beware of endemics. If you're in rural India, do _not_ drink the tea sold at road-side carts.

<comment><USER6> But once you get past the first round of stomach churning illness that food and tea is great! It's usually all I eat when I visit family in India. I haven't gotten sick from road-side food for the last 6 trips back.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm not sure that it's my most interesting, but I want to someday make robotic fireflies.

I'm about to leave the East Coast to go to Stanford, and I don't want to live in a firefly-free world. I thought about trying to import them and have them breed, but apparently most species like humidity and standing water, which the Bay Area isn't too long on. I'm also not sure if they could find stuff to eat out West.

So robots are the logical solution. I realize it's going to be really hard to make something that small that's light enough to fly that blinks a light, has enough power to go for more than a few minutes, and can have the logic I'd like it to have. (In a perfect world, I'd like it to randomly roam campus for a few hours and then come back to where I launched them from.)

Also, my friend who's into robotics tells me that the US government has put a lot of money into robotic insects (for spying?) and not really gotten anywhere.

Nonetheless, someday I hope to make this happen, even if it doesn't quite have all of the features that it has in my mind.

<comment><USER8> > I thought about trying to import them and have them breed, but apparently > most species like humidity and standing water...

Thank you for not doing that. The last person to have an idea like this introduced those god damn Starlings to North America. Mice came here in the same fashion (i.e. human intervention).

<comment><USER9> If you ever get a chance, watch this movie: <http://www.badmovies.org/movies/canetoads/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The google codejam occurs about once a year ( <http://code.google.com/codejam> ). If you make it past the qualification round and the first round, and you place in the top 500 of the second round, then you get a codejam tshirt. (This year, I placed around 1300, which is good, but not good enough!)

Getting that tshirt is my goal - a nice, tangible way to symbolize the massive amount of algorithmic things that I'm attempting to learn. A year ago, I couldn't solve a single problem in round 2.

Practicing for this sort of thing is a lot of fun. Programming competitions offer bite-sized questions to think about, and I believe that solving these types of questions really helps my coding style. If you don't write the best, most straightforward program to solve the problem, then you're going to run into costly bugs.

<comment><USER11> Have you heard of TopCoder ( <http://www.topcoder.com/tc> ) ? They run several algorithm competitions like this every month.

<comment><USER10> Yeah. I've been practicing on topcoder and another, lesser known site, called codeforces.

<comment><USER12> Codeforces is run by this dude [<http://petr-mitrichev.blogspot.com/>] who is the #1 ranked algorithms programmer on TC. Pretty cool!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm planning to identify a suitable candidate to get married to, and who is genetically appropriate enough to give me good quality kids, then convince this person to marry me and carry my child, within the next year.

Difficult, but I assume interesting.

<comment><USER14> My Advice:

1) Accept the person that you are, and learn to love that person. If you don't accept who you are and love yourself, others will have a hard time following suit.

2) Do the things you love. In doing so, you're likely to meet others who share the same interests.

3) Stop worrying about whether you'll ever find someone. When you do this, you project a sense of desperation, and others can pick up on this.

<comment><USER15> Great advice, and totally agree.

On a more practical level, try OkCupid.com. Seriously, I've been so impressed with that site. If match.com is like myspace, okcupid.com is like facebook. High quality, smart people. The girls actually write you back. I'm averaging about 2 dates a month from OkCupid right now.

Also, the site is just a well designed and fun web app, so I can appreciate it on that level.

<comment><USER16> Seconded. Great site.

I haven't used any other dating sites, so I have no proper basis for comparison, but I've been very satisfied with the site, from matching system, search options, etc.

Bottom line: I ended up meeting my current girlfriend there and things are going very, very well with her. Anecdotal evidence, yes, but I hope it complements the nuggets of awesomeness you'll find on OKTrends (<http://blog.okcupid.com>).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I am getting married next year. we are merging two divorced families (with both have kids and this will be a Brady Bunch size family).

My goal is to make it work. We are doing pre-marriage counseling, talking openly, pushing myself to grow, practicing patience and acceptance, and everything I can.

It is a huge challenge, but it is completely worth it.

My secondary goal is to stop working in tech and focus on my retail business (which is profitable and ready to grow).

</comment><comment><USER18> Get admitted to a PhD in CS at Stanford next cycle.

Bottleneck: At my age and with no formal education in CS and poor academic records, getting an admission is next to impossible by conventional wisdom.

But the challenge is what makes it interesting :-).

PS: If anyone has any data/anecdotes/advice on "impossible" PhD admissions, I'd be glad to hear it (either here or my email is in the profile).

<comment><USER19> At the risk of discouraging you, have a look at the applicant profiles people post up on some of the grad school forum sites. In general, I have to say I have seen very little evidence of longshot admissions. The people who get in to MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley CS (et al) almost invariably have a stellar transcripts & scores, platinum refs, research experience, and very frequently a few papers and an NSF or NDSEG to boot.

If you are really serious about this, I would say that your best bet is to start making inroads into the field by first getting a masters at a lesser school. There you would be able to demonstrate that you are capable of doing well in grad level courses, which will be a serious question mark on your application given your poor grades. If you are lucky and work hard, you may also be able to publish & network. Especially at the top schools, academia is extremely insidery and knowing people counts for more than you might expect. At least, this has been my experience, and I am trying to do something very similar in a closely-related field (math).

Last, I see it all the time that people get hung up on gaining admission to the best schools. Why Stanford? Getting to rub shoulders with the leaders of the field would, admittedly, be awesome--but you should remember that there are many less selective departments which could afford you a solid and rewarding PhD experience. In my completely un-scientific estimation, 90% of your success or failure grad will be due intrinsic factors--intelligence, work ethic, communication skills, and so forth. The other 10% will come from your surroundings. Don't get so hung up on the latter that you lose sight of the former. Or, more simply: it's possible for you to be a successful PhD student and academic without going to Stanford.

<comment><USER18> All good advice (up voted), but I really am swinging for the fences here. I don't want a masters or PhD at a lesser school . Doing quite well without one.

"I see it all the time that people get hung up on gaining admission to the best schools. Why Stanford? "

I am not "hung up" on it in the sense that if I don't get in that is quite all right. I have zero ego attached to any academic credentials. As you rightly point out the odds are that I'll fail and that is OK.

This is an attempted "hack" somewhat akin to climbing Everest via the hardest route possible. If the goal is _just_ to stand on top of Everest there are better ways. There are easier routes up the mountain (like getting the Masters first from a lesser school, then going to Stanford for the PhD etc etc), but the fun (for me, I am a crazy guy) is in doing the hardest thing possible. There are other things I could do like come over on an H1 visa first then attend some classes while working at some MegaCorp, ace those, get to know some professors etc etc, but I don't _want_ to do it that way.

I don't mind if I never get a PhD. I am not doing it to increase my self worth or career opportunities. (I have plenty of both, and the time and effort put into a PhD can probably be used to build a half dozen startups instead if money were the goal). In Computer Science anyone with a laptop, Ubuntu, a network connection and an ACM/IEEE membership can do any kind of research he wants to, though that would be a very barebones approach.

This is just a(n artificially high) bar I am trying to jump over. Jumping over a bar is intrinsically pointless. The fun is in the attempt.

I understand if people think it is a crazy idea. I just put it down here because the OP asked for "interesting" goals. Crazy ideas are often interesting!

"At the risk of discouraging you, have a look at the applicant profiles people post up on some of the grad school forum sites. "

I am not discouraged at all. I personally know very "average" people who have PhDs from MIT/Stanford. The idea that every MIT/Stanford grad is some kind of technical/research superman is a myth. There is a bell curve there, and I am confident I am not on the lower end of that curve. I don't have the right "background" to get in but I've never let that stop me from trying anything so why start now?

So sure, by conventional thinking I have next to no chance. On the other hand, a scientist I work with (who supervises several PhD's at IISc and IITs) said to me "I've never seen anyone level up as fast as you do. You understand [his specialization in Machine Learning] more deeply and have more ideas than any of my students. If you ever want to do a PhD and want a recommendation, ask me".

I plan to. ;-)

<comment><USER19> Well then, more power to you & best of luck. I'm curious--if accepted would you even bother going? It sounds like merely getting in would satisfy all of your goals.

<comment><USER18> "I'm curious--if accepted would you even bother going? "

Yes I would. There are some ultra awesome professors there I'd love to work with. And the atmsphere and facilities at Stanford would be much better (than my present situation in Bangalore) to do research. My focus wouold be to work with and learn from them, not to become a fulltime academic.

If I get my PhD I'd like to be the author of a _few_ awesome research papers and have no intention of getting into the tenure track rat race and so on.

"It sounds like merely getting in would satisfy all of your goals."

My _immediate_ goal is to get and admission. Why should meeting that goal satisfy _all_ my goals?

Once you jump over one bar you reset it higher and try again.

If I were to get admitted, I'd set a goal of doing some stunning research, ace the classes and so on (which would be quite a challenge given the calibre of my fellow students).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I'm trying to figure out: (1) how much time a newborn will actually demand from me and my wife, and (2) how we will fit in all the things we have decided _must_ continue to happen (e.g. me still having a fulltime job, both of us getting regular exercise and a bit of downtime, etc).

<comment><USER21> Wait, if you're abstractbill, does that make the kid AbstractBillImpl?

<comment><USER22> DefaultBill

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm going to design my first article of clothing for myself next month. I'm going to Vietnam, and I'll do it in either Saigon, Hanoi, or Ho An. I'll be in the first two cities anyways, I might go to third just for its reputation as a tailor and fashion city. I've got a shirt I used to like a lot that's worn out, going to have a tailor use it as a model to make another. Going to get two shirts made. Depending on how that goes, I might make a crazy-ish piece since prices are somewhat cheap.

<comment><USER23> I visited Vietnam three times over a 3 year period. Is it your first time?

Since my last visit, laws have changed that require you to wear a helmet while on a moped. One of the things I enjoyed the most was the freedom in riding a moped around a huge crowded city for hours, not knowing where I was going, or where I'd end up. It's somewhat ruined now with the helmet law. Nearly 100 degree weather wearing a helmet isn't so fun.

<comment><USER24> I had a close friend die from a crash on a moped due to him not wearing a helmet.

I suggest you suck it up and wear one regardless of the heat if you either: use your head for a living, or just value your life.

<comment><USER25> That is unfortunate about your friend.

Helmets seem to be all or nothing. If there is a law forcing them, 95% of people wear helmets. If there isn't, 95% of people don't wear a helmet.

You would expect people to carefully consider it and make a decision on their own. For some reason people can easily rationalize not wearing a helmet in two seconds and roll with that for years.

<comment><USER7> > _Helmets seem to be all or nothing_

I'm not sure about that. The law in Delaware is that you must have a helmet on your motorcycle for each person on it (I guess they don't want there to be a monetary cost to wearing a helmet.), and it seems like the majority (2/3?) of people I see wear them, but definitely not all.

To some extent it comes down to culture/how aware people are. I think in America, at least half of people would wear them regardless (and in a lot of states, there's either no law requiring them, or the law only applies to new riders).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I'm training for the 'Yorkshireman Marathon' in September in the UK. Its 26.6 miles of hilly off road tracks with over 3000ft of ascent. I don't just want to finish it, I want to get in between 3.30 and 4 hours.

The biggest problem at the moment is finding the time to train. Ideally I would like to be out everyday but I can only manage 4 days a week. Each training run is lasting upto 2.5 hours and finding that time each day is tough.

The rest is fun and massively rewarding. As I get fitter I need less sleep and I feel much stronger - both physically and mentally.

<comment><USER27> In general terms, you may need less sleep when you are healthy and fit, but if you are doing 2.5 hour runs you really should be getting _extra_ sleep. Distance running takes a huge toll on your body and you need to do everything you can to help it recover. My favorite long run recovery technique is an ice bath, ibuprofen, and beer (carbs!).

<comment><USER26> Thats the catch 22 of it all. I get plenty of sleep, at least 9 hours a night. So when I'm up I'm full of it an could easily do a long run as I'm fully rested and ready to go.

The only way to find more time to run is to sleep less which is obviously bad.

I've never tried the ice bath, ibuprofen and recovery but I've certainly had beer. Thanks for your advice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I would like to get my black belt in Taekwondo by the age of 30 (turning 23 in August) and fight at a Canadian national or Ontario provincial competition. I am currently a yellow belt (started about a year ago) but have won a gold and a silver at two recent invitational competitions.

I had an excellent teacher in Thunder Bay, but just moved to Toronto a month ago to be in a more tech savvy town (I'm a developer) and am having difficulty finding a dojang that I like and that gives attention to nurturing their lower color belts.

<comment><USER29> I've considered joining Taekwondo for some time but worry that the lower belts will be to caught up in teaching very basic moves and the traditional aspects of the sport.

I understand the need to learn the basics just wondering if you found this time a drag at all or it was all interesting and I'd have nothing to worry about?

<comment><USER30> To be honest, in martial arts, the basics is really all there is. You don't tell a novice from an expert by which katas they know, or even their belt.

You tell them apart by their attitude toward training (patient, calm, focused) and their mastery of the basics (accurate targeting, completely relaxed body, powerful delivery).

One thing I've enjoyed in martial arts training is that taste grows faster than ability - which means that subjectively you get worse the more you practice. To compensate, training teaches you to be more patient with yourself - when we screw something up, we just do it again, there's no need to say anything or get annoyed.

Attitude is the biggest thing to focus on in the early grades (the technical stuff can only be learnt by repetition, so it's not that hard - just repeat). I don't think it's a drag at all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I suppose the most interesting goal, to me, is getting my teeth fixed. I didn't take care of them all through my twenties and it's had serious repercussions on my social and professional life as well as taking a drastic toll on my confidence.

Roadblocks and/or bottlenecks are easy: finances. Dental work isn't cheap, especially when you're looking at as much work as I need done. The "fear" of the dentist was also an initial roadblock, but not only is it far less worse than I imagined/remembered, I also happen to have "the hots" for my female dentist so it makes going far easier.

<comment><USER20> I had _awful_ dental hygiene up until my mid-20s.

A big step for me was finding a dentist I trusted, and just doing what he told me - letting go of the fear that he was going to completely drain me financially.

It wasn't cheap, but eventually all the required work was done, and I formed new habits that have meant no no work has been needed for several years now.

One of the most important things I did was get invisalign (braces). My teeth were really hard to keep clean before - flossing was almost impossible in some places due to the way my teeth were overlapping. Now they're straight it's really quite easy.

<comment><USER31> I'm with you there. The dentist I have now I really feel like I can trust and she's given me a care plan that isn't just the highest priced option, but all my options. She recently went in to do a root canal and found out I didn't need one when she could've just as easily done it and charged me for it.

But I do agree, I think once I've gotten the work done, taking caring of them should be easier.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I presume you're asking about goals not dreams? Here's the stuff I've been working on lately:

1\. Fixing my motivation problem. No, not that kind :-) After a lot of self- analysis I discovered I'm motivated by my desire to be "the best", and this isn't a good thing because I tend to become a little better than the #2 guy and then stop, contented. Mozart or Microsoft didn't become what they are by trying to beat the #2 guy! So I'm fixing myself to always move forward even when there's no one ahead of me.

2\. Becoming a better classical-style singer. The major roadblock is that my health is very poor, and my throat always seems to be sore for some reason or other. I rectify this by taking as many lessons as I can when I'm feeling well or even moderately unwell.

3\. Becoming better with women. The major roadblock right now is that I don't know how to "raise the temperature" in a casual date setting. In nightclubs where the "temperature" is high, I've taught myself to pick up women pretty consistently, but this doesn't seem to be enough.

4\. Releasing a neat piece of software that I've been developing in the last couple months. It's already pretty good and will probably make a bigger splash than my last "fun" project (<http://openphotovr.org>) did, but the finishing bits just take so much time. Don't worry HN, I'll keep you posted.

5\. Solving math problems in and around "computational game theory". My previous "neat" results were about quining cooperation (<http://lesswrong.com/lw/do/reformalizing_pd/> and <http://lesswrong.com/lw/13y/freaky_fairness/>), and recently I've been trying to solve a similar problem in a more abstract setting. Not getting much results yet; so far it looks like a blank wall and I keep trying different directions of attack.

<comment><USER7> 1: just find someone else to compare yourself to. Even if there's no one better than you at your job/in your group of friends/whatever, there definitely _are_ people better than you.

4: You're probably trying to make it too perfect before you launch. Pick a date that seems a little too close, and resolve to submit it to HN by that date no matter what. If you end up pushing half of those "finishing bits" to after launch, whatever. It's quite possible that no one on HN will say that it should have one of those finishing bits, which probably means you can cross it off the list.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Turning Hackety Hack into a force to be reckoned with when it comes to teaching programming.

I was a really bad steward for the first half a year, due to crushing lack of assistance and being really demoralized. Lately, I've managed to turn that around, and am currently crushing it pretty hard. 1.0 for Whyday, and then more beyond... things are looking up, but it's a long hard road ahead.

</comment><comment><USER34> launch a web site that brings in enough income that I can quit my day job

<comment><USER35> Start blogging about everything you know. Teach the world. Check your Analytics regularly to find out what of those things people are searching for. Use the Google Keyword tool to measure market potential of digging deeper on those subjects. Start spin-off sites if there's enough potential. Sign up appropriate affiliates. Develop information products around those subjects. Sit back and relax.

<comment><USER34> too much work & not scalable. sh1tm0nkey and all the "make money fast" people online tell you to do this... I used to hang out on forums with people who do this and I can say that 95% of them are broke, the other 5% are making money exploiting the other 95%.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> To be a racecar driver--professionally or not. Sounds crazy, but something about watching Formula 1 for the last few years has driven (haha) me to really want to get involved some kind of way. Saving up for lessons at the Skip Barber Racing School for next summer.

Current bottleneck: no time right now to dedicate to it. I just satisfy race longings now thru occasionally karting and flying around the backroads here in NC.

<http://www.skipbarber.com/>

<comment><USER37> Do you know about Drivers Education (DE) and track days? I just got my $1500 "race car" running and am planning to do a DE event this fall with my local PCA (porsche club of america.) There are also Solo2 and autocross events everywhere you can do in your daily driver.

<comment><USER9> I think I have about $1600 in my autocross (and sometimes daily driver) car. It really isn't that expensive if you find something cheap (like a BMW E30 or Porsche 924) and do all the work to it yourself.

<comment><USER37> heh... mine is an '88 924S. For anyone who's interested, there is a ton of support for DIY'ers out there who want to build a car. The bmw and porsche forums are awesome. I imagine there's a great forum out there for any car worth racing.

<comment><USER9> Sweet. The 924S was greatly underrated in my opinion. I have an '87 that was my previous autocrosser but is in need of new struts, which are pretty expensive (more than I paid for the car).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Learn every juggling trick I have seen, heared of or imagined.

Roadblock: balls keep falling.

EDIT: current status (as of yesterday): <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lsuO0tQZaU>

<comment><USER39> Practise standing over a bed or a couch. This greatly speeds up the ball recovery process, allowing you to iterate faster with far less frustration!

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> I'm moving to Thailand or possibly the Philippines from Sweden at the end of August, to attempt to build apps aiming to be ramen profitable in a developing country and then work my way up from there.

Problem: Worst case, my savings only last until December.

Solution: Splatter "hire me" over apps, portfolio site and keep an eye out for freelance work to retain a reasonable life-support margin.

Problem: May not find freelance work due to bad luck, recession, incompetence etc.

Solution: Apply for distance courses and do 25-50% studies for student funding.

Problem: May over invest in a horrible idea that is never going to make money.

Solution: Aim to build small apps.

Problem: Completely ran out of money, with no obvious way of getting new ones.

Solution: Credit card should get me a few months margins.

Problem: Completely ran out of credit, with no obvious way of supporting myself.

Solution: Admit incompetence, feel ashamed, move back to comfortable Sweden and work at Volvo or Ericsson until retirement like everyone else.

Problem: Pretty Asian girls.

Solution: Don't.

Biggest bottleneck is clearly money, and I'd really prefer not be studying at the same time. I'm also going to be staying with friends, so that'll keep my burn rate down.

<comment><USER41> You may have already thought about this, but have you considered getting a "teach English" job? In many cases, your housing (and possibly food/etc.) will be paid for, and you can focus your free time on building apps. Best of luck!

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> I want to start a company that builds solar panels in space.

Roadblocks (the ones I think are the biggest anyway):

Supply Chain. Probably going to first need a way to or supplier who can mine and process materials from somewhere other than Earth.

Infrastructure. Definitely going to need some sort of factory in space in which this operation can be done.

Knowledge. I don't know anything about manufacturing in space. There's some research in the area, but my guess is that the knowledge base just doesn't exist.

edit: formatting

<comment><USER43> Has anybody every done (non-fictional) mining somewhere other than Earth?

<comment><USER42> I don't think so. If you count collecting samples and returning to Earth with them, there's Apollo (from the moon) and possibly Hayabusa (from an asteroid: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa>).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Build a house; specifically a wood/earth "natural house" and fit it out to be self sufficient (for monetary rather than eco reasons :)).

Current road blocks: finding time to build, finding a site without NIMBY neighbours, planning permission (grrr)

<comment><USER4> I'm interested in this too and also for monetary reasons rather than the eco thing.

Mostly what I've looked at so far are cob/straw houses. With these you are basically looking at a rubble/concrete base (which you can hopefully scavenge for free), clay/straw/sand for making the cob, and wood for the roof/window/doorframes etc. The best budget option for a roof seems to be turf, although that cuts down on the amount of rain water you could collect if you wanted to independant from a water company.

The biggest obstacle in the UK seems to be finding suitable land and getting planning permission etc. I don't really know any solution to that.

Over the past few weeks I've been reading 'building with cob: a step by step guide" which covers both the technical and legal aspects of building one of these structures in the UK. It's a great book.

<comment><USER44> I know this is self promotion :) but I recently blogged about my reasons for wanting to do this here: [http://www.errant.me.uk/blog/2010/07/why-i-want-an- eco-house...](http://www.errant.me.uk/blog/2010/07/why-i-want-an-eco-house/)

 _The best budget option for a roof seems to be turf_

What I have in mind is something of a sunken/earthworks house - so yes, turf roof which I would try and double as a grass terrace etc. cob/straw looks like a useful material from my research too - coupled with the sunken aspect for insulation reasons.

 _The biggest obstacle in the UK seems to be finding suitable land and getting planning permission etc. I don't really know any solution to that._

Most of the "first generation" examples I have seen build first and sort planning later. But there are newer projects that have applied successfully - and that is the route I prefer.

I think planners are becoming more open to self sustained housing, thankfully :)

Thanks for the book recommendation! I will track it down from Amazon.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> To do research in natural language processing. Roadblocks:

* Time. Or if time = money then I need money to be able to spend time on this. Also, in itself this wouldn't bring in much income I don't think.

* No CS background. Don't know where to start.

<comment><USER46> Three good books that can get you started:

1) Natural Language Understanding - James Allen 2) Speech and Natural Language Processing - Jurafsky & Martin 3) Statistical Foundations of Natural Language Processing - <USER2>

You can brush up your probability and Linear Algebra from the prep guides available from Andrew Ng's machine learning course. My best wishes.

<comment><USER47> I have copies of 2) Speech and Natural Language Processing - Jurafsky & Martin 3) Statistical Foundations of Natural Language Processing - Manning that I'm willing to sell. I tried to bite off more than I could chew and moved on to a different project.

peter at pchristensen dot com

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> I'm working on becoming a beekeeper. Learning about bee cycles and getting involved in a beekeeping group is easy enough. The biggest roadblock is finding a place to keep them in LA.

<comment><USER49> Perhaps Acton or Leona Valley could work? I went cherry-picking in Leona Valley last weekend and there was quite a bit of honey for sale here and there. Also my local grocery store sells great honey from Acton. If you're not familiar with these areas they are in and around the Antelope Valley (about one hour north-east of LA).

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> I want to go on a deep sea submarine ride, so that I see bioluminecent fish.

Road Block(s): No packaged trips to do this, no network with marine biologists/researchers who own the subs

<comment><USER30> In case you live in London .. come see the Science Museum (South Kensington), they have an incredibly cool deep-sea fish exhibit going on, including bioluminescent ones.

</comment></comment><comment><USER51> learn as much mathematics as I can. Currently enrolled in undergrad summer classes at Berkeley, but I already have a CS degree from another school back east. Some obstacles: paying tuition out of pocket, navigating the bureaucracy of being a non-matriculated student, finding inexpensive housing near the university that's not utter crap; struggling to keep up in classes because I am older and my brain doesn't work as fast, etc.

<comment><USER52> if your goal is to just learn as much math as you can. Why matriculate in the class and pay tuition? I've never seen a professor check if everyone is matriculated let alone kick anyone out for not being matriculated. Plus no bureaucracy. :-) I've sat in on tons of classes. Also MIT, Stanford and Berkeley post video lectures, notes, assignments exams of math classes online. also free. save the money and get a better apartment.

<comment><USER51> Ah.

Because at any given moment I may have some side projects that "might potentially make some money" going on, and if I don't pay for a class, I will naturally just want to work on those projects - this has been proven out by history.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> Become one of the world's top salsa dancers by 2020.

Current roadblock is that I'm just not doing it enough. I get distracted by other interests of mine. I was previously practising 3 times a week (which probably still isn't enough) but lately I'm only going once a week.

<comment><USER54> Not to be cynical, but how are you going to be top of the world in anything practicing only 3 times a week?

<comment><USER53> Yeah, I know. Even three times a week isn't enough. Perhaps it's a goal that isn't really important to me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> I am currently trying to get back into programming. I haven't touched code in 10 years and way back then I was still writing little-- applets I guess we would call them today-- in QBasic and cracking out some crappy VBasic stuff. I was completely self-taught which meant that my code was as sloppy and inefficient as you could possibly imagine while still successfully getting the job done. I had been writing BASIC for about 10 years at that point and was pretty competent with the way I hacked things together.

Here I am, years later, vastly more knowledgeable than I ever have been, yet code dumb. I have a few things I would like to develop solutions for, and Java seemed to fit my needs. I started on the "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist" book and I've enjoyed it, but I'm starting to feel that maybe Java isn't the solution I am looking for.

A few solutions I would like to have implemented quickly and I am heavily considering refreshing my limited knowledge of VB and cracking out some hack code.

I'm torn right now. Learn a new multi-platform language and proper coding practices or just settle for some Windows only solutions that I could complete in a vastly shorter period of time.

edit: spelling

tl;dr - write code again (learn a language)

<comment><USER56> It might be interesting to just learn how to be a great information architect and product manager. Head a team of offshore developers to make your ideas happen.

Just an idea...

<comment><USER55> I honestly think I would be good that that. I am a very mechanical person-- a large portion of my friends and family refer to me as "the fixer." I feel that I generally am able to develop innovative solutions to problems, but I currently lack the coding skills.

The problems with the few things I want to accomplish currently is that they are not really money-making solutions. They are personal things that I would like to implement across a variety of platforms to include Windows, Linux and my cell. Another would be simplifying work-related tasks that could benefit my co-workers as well, but are not something that the company (nor myself) would be interested in spending largish sums of money on developing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER57> Some really inspiring stuff in here.

My short-term track/running/fitness goals: Break 4 minutes for 1500m, 2:00 for 800m. Currently at 4:06 and 2:00.1 (the latter is so heartbreaking!). Squat 250lbs (currently at 185, weighing 138).

Educational goals: 4 publications in the next two years, complete PhD (CS). Get a solid grasp on differential calculus. Truly understand relativity and quantum mechanics.

Any advice from people who've tackled any of the above is welcome. Thanks.

<comment><USER58> Well I'm way behind you in the running (I'm attempting to do _eight_ -minute miles) but ahead of you in the relativity and quantum mechanics, so I'll say this: you'll never get a proper understanding by reading popular-science type books. You want to get proper textbooks and work through the problems one by one. I can recommend _Understanding Einstein's Relativity" by D'Inverno and Eisberg and Resnick for Quantum Mechanics.

Note: that last one won't get you into really interesting bits like the _interpretation* of quantum mechanics, but I think you need to have a thorough understanding of the mathematics before you tackle the philosophical issues.

<comment><USER57> This is what I was looking for. Thanks so much!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Moving to New York with my wife and two-year old. We've always wanted to experience the city and it's a major change from where we are now (Maine, 15 minute bike to work along the ocean). It scares the crap out of me but it's important to show my daughter how to have adventures.

</comment><comment><USER59> Raising our daughter. Current bottleneck: not using potty. Think we'll just have to wait until she's ready though!

<comment><USER45> Do you know all the tips & techniques there are? We've just been going through this with our 2-yr-old for the past 8 months and wouldn't mind sharing what I've learned.

But, I think the best thing we did that actually worked---which we always had been reluctant to trying---was to leave him running around the house butt- naked. The whole apartment has carpet.

Fun times.

<comment><USER59> I'm not sure if that's effective - we've tried it some, but there doesn't seem to be a connection, yet, to "I should have done that with the potty". People have told us that it sort of happens when they're ready and not earlier, so perhaps it's best not to rush things.

<comment><USER45> Yes, definitely don't rush it and always be patient. But you may be surprised to find that she actually does make the connection and still refuses to use the potty.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER60> Publish a book (like on dead trees).

The biggest roadblock for me so far is just having time to execute on it. I have friends who have published books through ORA, so I'm not too concerned about getting proper introductions to people in the tech publishing world; I just don't know if I have the time to sit down and bang out 200 pages of quality material.

<comment><USER61> Try joining NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month): <http://nanowrimo.org>

It's a world-wide one-month novel writing sprint, meant to solve the "one day" novel problem ("One day, I'll write a novel"). Though the focus is on novel writing, there's nothing to stop you from working on a non-fiction book.

The in-person write-ins, online community available for short word-count sprints, and other community-momentum / encouragement benefits can be a huge help to anyone who "wants" to find the time to write, but somehow hasn't yet been able to. Single moms with a job succeed at this. You can too!

<comment><USER62> It's terrible luck, for me, that nanowrimo is always November, which is always end-of-semester crunch time for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER63> Earn my FAA Private Pilot Certificate [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_certification_in_the_Unit...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_certification_in_the_United_States#Private_pilot)

</comment><comment><USER46> Becoming a better programmer.

Roadblocks: Lack of self-discipline and commitment (day job providing good money)

<comment><USER45> Maybe you've seen this from being on HN, but www.structuredprocrastination.com. Try to get busy with "important" things, and you'll find yourself programming more.

One thing I'm starting to do, since I also have a day job, is going to the library for my lunch break (I eat lunch real fast right before I go) which is luckily a few blocks away, with and laptop loaded with Ubuntu to force myself to do some more lisping.

Once I get in the habit I'll be able to work on harder challenges and hopefully become a better programmer.

<comment><USER46> Thanks for the link. My current _structured procrastination_ is reading HN and lot of technical articles. I think I should stop doing that and start coding more.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER64> The Japanese Language Proficiency Test N1. It has been a personal demon of mine for the past five years and I've only recently got the confidence to say that I may one day be able to pass it. Required for post-grad study in a Japanese university or work at a Japanese company (for a foreigner at least).

</comment><comment><USER65> Don't get killed by a bear or experience any other medical emergency during a week-long, dispersed camping trip in northern California.

<comment><USER20> Banging pots and pans together will usually scare bears away. If not, just remember you don't have to outrun the bear - you just have to outrun your slowest friend.

<comment><USER65> I bought an air horn. If I don't need it for bears, it should be a funny alarm clock for my buddies. ;)

<comment><USER66> As you move through the wilderness, the wildlife around you runs away depending on how loud or out-of-place you are. Think of it as being a really effective animal-chasing flashlight.

In the vast, vast majority of cases, a confrontation with an animal of any size will lead to the animal trying to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. I've been within 20 feet of big black bears and had coyotes sniff my toes; all I had to do was move a little and they took off. People just like to imagine "confronting" a bear and scaring it away because those few cases get a lot of media attention, and they're exciting.

So try instead to shrink your circle as much as possible and see what you can encounter out there. I like to sometimes find the right sort of spot and sit really quietly for a few hours, to see what comes along.

Tom Brown's books on tracking &etc. are pretty OK and talk about this a bit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER56> I really like the concept behind this Ask HN, especially the "help someone else in the thread with their goals." I'll definitely try.

Goal: Launch a non-profit student apprenticeship program in partnership with a few corporations.

Roadblock #1: While doing my 9-7 job.

Roadblock #2: A few of my web applications are finally reaching the "need to incorporate" stage. Have very little clue about law and accounting.

Roadblock #3: Have some of the clients/partnerships down, but getting the right students and professionals involved is difficult.

</comment><comment><USER67> Learn OpenGL so I can finally make those mobile games I've always wanted to. Hangups are thinking in matrices, understanding of the math involved

<comment><USER68> The math involved for basic 3d is overrated. Just sit down and copy code at first, and write reams of stuff that works. It should be no problem to magpie enough code to get a simple engine together.

<comment><USER54> Agree. Also, I liked this book: [http://www.amazon.ca/Math-Primer-Graphics- Game-Development/d...](http://www.amazon.ca/Math-Primer-Graphics-Game- Development/dp/1556229119/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278602690&sr=1-7) a lot, even if it's quite basic and not hardcore (i.e. many applied examples rather than formulas and proofs).

<comment><USER67> Thanks all for the book recommendations!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER69> To do research in building a consumer behaviour simulator, or more generally a 'society simulator' (simulating a whole city with people in it who have jobs, who are going to restaurants, go shopping, pay taxes, etc...) Meanwhile trying to figure out whether I can create some kind of startup/business out of this.

Bottleneck: My boring day job, which is needed because I have a family to support.

<comment><USER54> If you're serious about building a business around this (i.e., if you're into the business side of this rather than the pure research side), post a way for me to contact you - we should talk.

<comment><USER69> Yes I am serious about building a business around this. My strategy is to simulate as much aspect of a virtual person's life as possible, because the simulation of different aspects strengthen each-other, makes the simulation more precise, enables more and more emergent behaviour. On the other hand in the beginning I will mostly try to aim for those aspects which have immediate business value: to simulate consumer behaviour in shops, restaurants, etc...

I happily talk about this with you. My email is:

nadam60 at gmail dot com

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER70> Quit smoking cold turkey (was a 1 pack smoker for over 7 years). I am 3 days nicotine free and that sounds very interesting to me.

Roadblocks: they keep selling them...

If someone else is planning the same, the tips at whyquit.com helped me.

<comment><USER71> Read the book, Easy Way to Quite Smoking by Allan Carr. <http://www.amazon.ca/Easy-Way-Stop-Smoking-Kit/dp/1905555008> It worked for me, my partner, and several of our friends.

<comment><USER72> It worked for me too. It's like reverse-brainwashing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER73> Build a successful web app so I can do less consulting.

<comment><USER74> you should try the challenge at challenge.co for that!

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> My goal should probably be to finish off my last uni semester coming up as well as possible but much more interested in my startup at the moment.

Another aspect I guess is to get more involved in the Melbourne startup/ coworking community, only had limited contact thus far in what seems to be quiet a large and vibrant scene.

<comment><USER75> Hey mate, I'm a final semester student doing CompSci at Monash. The melbourne startup scene is awesome! Definitely a lot of experienced and inspirational figures who're willing to give back to community. Would be awesome to catch up in person sometime.

</comment></comment><comment><USER76> Hitchhike across southern Japan (Honshu mostly)

<comment><USER77> I hitchhiked around Argentina and Chile 2 years ago, and the experience has been far and away the best thing I've done in my life. I'm currently gearing up for a much longer trip, if I can just figure out where.

My old roommate spent a few weeks hitching around Japan and loved it. He had no trouble at all, and the people were all really nice.

You might want to read Hokkaido Highway Blues if you haven't yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> to find this surface mount resistor I just dropped.

<comment><USER37> found it!

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Fluent in Japanese.

Roadblock: Day has 24 hours. Need 27.

I blew past the JLPT 2 last year, so this year it's just a matter of finding the time to work on it every day.

Would list my marathon training, but that's too popular as-is. ;p Farthest run has been ten miles so far; I'll get there...

<comment><USER78> It's time to move to Japan, if you don't live there already. It's the closest you'll get to studying 27 hours a day, and the only sure path to fluency, given the level you're at.

<comment><USER21> I'm writing this from my tiny apartment in Saitama. :)

<comment><USER79> Speaking of which, I'm hoping to visit my friend in Singapore in Sept or October, mind if I swing by and crash in your hallway or something? (or meet in Tokyo and show me around? :)

<comment><USER21> My apartment does have a hallway, in addition to a bedroom and a kitchen. Unfortunately, they're all _the same room_.

I'd have more space if this place said 'Adidas' on the side.

That said, of course I'll meet you up in Tokyo and show you the city! As long as I'm in-country, of course; I'll be back in the US for August, and I'm not sure where I'll be for October and December.

<comment><USER79> Oh man if you're going to be in town in August, why don't you plan on crashing at my place for a weekend? I think you'd get along well with my new roommate, and if the timing is right a few other engineers will be in town hanging out as well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER80> My goal is an online social initiative that changes how people seek and receive real-time help.

A lot of deserving folks without an online voice struggle to put the word out when in need (An urgent need for blood, a sudden need for funds for a critical operation). I'm thinking we can tap into influentials to help spread the word (who can earn karma in return).

Bottleneck: As step 1 in this project, I've launched <http://www.saveaplusk.org> , but ironically it's suffering from the very same problem I want to solve - I have too small a voice to get the word out.

<comment><USER81> I am coming from a similar place but not yet launched my site. I have thought about the challenge you describe, and there are many on this site with advice that can help.

Whatever size voice you might have, it is louder when you use it locally. Are you and your friends using it to help people? Are the people then helped not willing to try it?

I can't see your site from my current location but with local and modest goals you might be surprised who the influentials are and what karma they might really want.

<comment><USER80> Thanks for your inputs, they're insightful. Tapping into my local network might work only so much in my case - most folks aren't too active on Twitter.

But I'm not going to give this up so easily - i will give it my sincerest shot. I guess the hard part's figuring out what works and what doesn't.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER82> Debt Free

<comment><USER83> As someone who just managed that this year, a few pointers.

1\. Budget. I know it sucks, and I know it is a hassle, still, no way around it. Grab excel or numbers or openOffice and do it start of each month.

2\. Split accounts I have used this technique to great success. \- 1st account is the "INCOMING" account, This is where all incoming money goes to and all fixed costs (see 1. Budget) go away from. \- 2nd account is a "pocket money" account. Pocket money is transferred there. Nice about this: You can spend ALL of this and your bills and food are still paid. \- 3rd account is a savings account. Not much to explain here. Make sure to save a good amount.

3\. Keep at it

4\. Get a seperate wallet for "food and household". I usually get a laugh about this, as it was something our parents used to do. Still, I withdraw cash beginning of the month and pay my groceries from this. Works wonders.

5\. Keep at it

6\. Use a big chunk from your savings account to remove all remaining debt at once.

7\. Enjoy freedom.

I know people will go on about "credit history", "credit rating", etc... However, I plan to nev er go there again.

Best, ::captaink::

<comment><USER82> #2 is something that I am already in the process of setting up. I am going to leave my main card at home, and then setup standing orders to transfer my pocket money into my new account every week. This seems like the most logical way to reign in unnecessary spending.

The other practice I want to get in the habit of is telling my self that I can only spend money if I have earned it from doing extra work, be it web design, cutting a hedge etc. That should motivate me to get out and about to earn extra on the side.

Its going to be very tough thats for sure, then again some of the happiest times of my life have been when ive been broke.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER84> I want to design and launch a improbably large space-mirror. If it were properly focused on earth (curvature adapting to distance from the planet), and given light-speed delay, we could direct a telescope upon it and see the state of earth 6.52x years ago, where the mirror is x parsecs away from earth.

Roadblock: probably not a scientifically viable proposition, given space debris and lack of ability to build something that large/durable. Solution: write a sci-fi short story with this as a plot element, and call it good.

</comment><comment><USER85> Sail the US east coast down to the caribbean.

</comment><comment><USER86> When I was a kid I thought of owning all toy robots out there in the market and then observing how they react with each other. I still think it will be a cool goal.

<comment><USER56> There are some cool things being done in virtual cooperation/teamwork explorations. Make a robot in virtual space and see how it interacts with other robots!

</comment></comment><comment><USER62> Reduce my earthly possessions to what I could feasibly bring with me on an airline flight, not counting furniture and kitchen supplies and not

Roadblocks: Most books don't exist in ebook form, I don't have an ebook reader, printed books cannot be ripped to disk as easily as CD's and DVD's. I have sentimental attachments to too many items. It seems wasteful to throw away valuable items, but selling them is a hassle.

</comment><comment><USER87> I want to toboggan/sled in Antarctica. I don't see it happening any time soon, but I should probably go for it while I'm still young and limber.

<comment><USER88> My goal is to do telecoms work in Antarctica. Let me know :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER89> "Getting over" my fear of heights. An off-and-on project I've been working on for my entire life.

Roadblocks: Being willing to put myself in feared situations long enough to acclimate to them. I know exposure works for me but it's still very hard as the next goal always seems to be the impossible one. I've been having some success in combining mindfulness techniques with the exposure practice.

<comment><USER90> 2 things I can suggest.

1.) Try setting a goal with someone else, it doesn't have to be the same goal between you, you both basically have to spot eachother and make sure one another do what they require themselves to do. That said you could do both goals together doubling your experiences.

2.) I have a fear of heights too. However, the way I've tackled it was with indoor rock climbing, which transfered to outdoor freeclimbing, and once I lose the weight, skydiving next year.

<comment><USER89> Good suggestions. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER91> Learn to sail and buy a boat. Ultimately I want to do solo expeditions. Inspiration -> <http://www.bigoceans.com/>

My biggest roadblock is that I'm broke. I haven't really started on this goal in earnest yet. My intention is to finish my PhD by the end of the year and then freelance for a while to earn enough money for lessons and boat.

</comment><comment><USER92> My most interesting goal right now is to try to make the time to start moving off of Microsoft development technology. I like C#, but ASP.NET annoys me and the whole platform feels like a massive dead end unless I want to work on boring corporate stuff.

My primary roadblock there is trying to decide what tech I want to pick up. Ruby and Rails are appealing, Python looks interesting, and I wonder if I shouldn't be looking at some new stuff like Clojure or node.js as well. I also wonder if I shouldn't get into some of the evented frameworks like Tornado or EventMachine. This has always been my problem -- I'm interested in too many aspects of technology and there's just no time to pursue them all.

My secondary roadblock, once I decide on a tech, is getting some good documentation and perhaps some mentoring on it. Some of those frameworks seem to be pretty lacking in good documentation and examples.

</comment><comment><USER93> After completing a compiler/language and used it for the ICFP contest i'm now thinking of making a debugger/ide for it.

</comment><comment><USER94> My current life goals are to run a marathon this summer (I'm running a half marathon this month) and to practice yoga daily. I've also been working on a project to help people accomplish their life goals: <http://yana.com> If you want to check it out, the beta code is "ycnews"

</comment><comment><USER95> Hack a gibson...

<comment><USER96> My first thought was "Hackers" (the movie). I am appropriately ashamed :)

<comment><USER97> Mine too, along with the infamous (at least among my friends) quote: "NO ONE Hacks the Gibson!"

<comment><USER98> nothing is impossible when sleeping with angelina jolie is on the line

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER99> Raise a million for charity, preferable a research-oriented one.

</comment><comment><USER100> Here is mine: <http://blogriot.com/life-list/>

<comment><USER101> good luck with the extra pepper !

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Finishing my PhD.

<comment><USER102> Awww.

<comment><USER43> I can't tell if you're trying to say that my goal is adorable or disappointing or that I'm a young'un or what.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER103> Trying to figure out the best way to pitch an idea to Google Australia to create a new job role for me in Melbourne (the only Australian Google office is in Sydney) in an area they don't currently cover ... oh and I'm not currently a Google employee.

<comment><USER104> Lars Bak managed to do it :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER105> I am still in a job that I hated like anything when I had to join it two year ago. I couldn't join Grad school this summer due to lack of money. So here are my goals in order of priority: 1\. Build a small webapp so that first of all I can quit my job and have time to hack on what I like. 2\. Get admission to a good Grad school next fall with full funding. 3\. loose all the fat (a lot of it) that I have gained in past few years. 4\. Make extra money to buy a Royal Enfield Bullet classic (any MotorCycle enthusiasts from India here ?) and go on a countrywide motorcycle trip of India.

<comment><USER105> Should have started long back ....but better late than never.

<comment><USER106> @Vineet you can try doing some research, Grad Schools value that a lot. You can try joining some research institute in india (I know they are rare) and have at least a paper submitted before you apply A good idea would be to target WWW 2011 conference which is going to take place in hyderabad,

In my case I had 2 international publication in a reputed International chemical engineering journal on topics related to machine learning which helped me a lot despite of poor grades,

you can try applying to universities like NCSU, UNCC which are decent also provide good support,

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER107> Move to San Francisco with my girlfriend, legally (we're Canadian). I can start a company w/ US friends that will sponsor me for a visa / work permit.

Her situation is the biggest roadblock - she didn't graduate from college (a big strike in the DHS's eyes) and has been self-employed as an esthetician for most of her career.

While she'd be open to working for someone else in the US, getting a visa for her will be tough without the college degree. And her preference is not to work for someone else so she can continue to run her practice while starting a skincare product line biz.

<comment><USER17> Can she be a partner in your company too?

<comment><USER107> good thought. probably, though getting her a visa through my company or someone else's is still the biggest challenge as she doesn't have a college degree.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER108> Learn to be happy.

"Satisfied with my lot" is probably a better term. Life is excellent except for the 5% of my brain that sees the bleak side of everything.

The main roadblock is the common depression / bipolar type II episodes.

<comment><USER109> Meditate! You will be happier, calmer and more focused. There are many meditations out there - be promiscuous and try out as many as you can. You will then be able to figure out what works best for you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER110> Develop a programming language which allows you to easily write inline grammars then use them and mutate them at compile- and run-time. Additionally have a nice (default) syntax, nice support for concurrency (I'm thinking something similar to goroutines), and actually try to make the language reasonably popular (the most insane of my goals).

Roadblocks: Myself, more than anything. So hard to work on something a. so big, and b. in spare time when I so often feel like chilling out!

</comment><comment><USER111> Trying to figure out if my dream job really exists anywhere.

I am trying to move from pure coding to a job that combines coding with traveling and dealing directly with technical stakeholders. It seems in most companies the people who are responsible for the latter do very little, if any, of the former.

Figure I will put another 1-3 years trying to find this position at an existing company, and if that doesn't pan out, I'll just start my own company designed around letting me do exactly that. :)

<comment><USER17> I had that gig for a while.

I was a consultant working on Business Intelligence and found a niche in automating rights management.

After a couple of years the travel got old (and there were some not fun projects in there too).

<comment><USER111> Yes, the verticals that are likely to feel like bankrolling all the traveling tend to be the larger corporate ones - the ones who are in the Business of Business, especially.

Not saying there aren't fascinating problems to solve in there as well, but you're right, there can be a lot of churn...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER98> $10k/mo passive income

<comment><USER112> Same. Running a business is not easy, but it's the easiest way to get there IMO.

It takes like 5-10M in capital to make 10k/mo "safely" on a long term basis now, which rules out an investment-only strategy for almost everybody.

<comment><USER113> Why do you need five million dollars for that?

<comment><USER112> It's hard to live off passive investment income b/c world governments are intent on shafting savers to bail out the debtor majority. "High yield" FDIC- insured savings accounts pay like 1.2% now in nominal terms but their return will surely be negative in real terms.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER75> Completing my CompSci degree and Financial Independence within 12 months.

Roadblocks: Psychological.

Bottlenecks: A boring regular job (partial financial independence) is an easier option.

<comment><USER114> What year in college are you now? Is 12-months on track to graduate with a CS degree?

<comment><USER75> Monash University, I finish in 4 months.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER115> Funding & national media attention for my political accountability startup. <http://votereports.org/> (next 6 months)

Partner with a certain local government agency to make a major user-facing improvement. (next 2 years)

Start a school using an the updated version of the monitorial/lancasterian system of education. (next 20 years)

</comment><comment><USER116> Summer: learn prereq material including functional programming and basic ai for an ai course that I want to take in the fall.

Life 1: live with less (stuff)

Life 2: meet a girl

As far as progress... I've started on Summer's, but I'm not as far as I hoped. Currently working on SICP. Life 1 is actually progressing, as very often I find things that I can get rid of and not miss. Life 2... not yet..

</comment><comment><USER117> Becoming an attorney, without an undergraduate degree or going massively into debt. This is possible in California, although it's difficult and the career prospects are limited, given an abundant supply of competitors for a shrinking number of openings. Fortunately (?) I love law more than I love money.

</comment><comment><USER68> Become a 4 dan go player. Recently ordered a lot of new problems & other study material to try to get there.

<comment><USER118> What's your present rank? I'm not devoting much time to it right now, but I'm trying to go from 10k -> 5k. (My efforts were re-invigorated when I got the iPad app from Many Faces of Go).

<comment><USER68> I've hit 3 dan before, but right now I'm probably a weak 2 dan. Life & Death is the key, so hopefully running through a thousand fresh problems will do the trick! If you do the same, you can do a lot better than 5k :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER119> Become an awesome martial arts trickster!

<http://trickstutorials.com>

</comment><comment><USER120> I'm preparing to start the application process to the United States Air Force Officer Training School to be commissioned as a 17D - Cyber Operations officer.

Roadblocks are the back log to even talk to a recruiter, and the extremely long and thorough application process. Someone help!

</comment><comment><USER121> Going into the wilderness to meditate and attain nirvana. No I'm not joking. I've got a tent ready, I've read the Samyutta Nikaya (Connected Discourses of the Buddha), and I'm going to the Ansel Adams Wilderness near a stream, under a tree or overlooking a cliff.

</comment><comment><USER122> My goal at the moment is to put a product out on the market. I've made a lot of free/open source/one-off projects that had potential to go further with a little investment. I'm currently taking one design, and getting it on shelves, being sold in stores.

</comment><comment><USER123> turning my ventures profitable enough to do whatever I want, whenever and wherever I want. Then do a couple of Kids. If I could just find out how to do tweens, priceless.

Bottleneck: have two kids at once, and gain some 2 years (time between first and second kid)

<comment><USER124> Solution: Two mothers.

<comment><USER123> yeah, great idea, but big cons: that's probably the fastest way to not see my kids grow, and loose my wife.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER125> I want to participate in Volvo Ocean Race.

Currently I am learning Python and Django and waiting for the Drupal 7 release to create a project. I hope it makes enough money that I can relocate to somewhere in Scandinavia preferably Finland.

</comment><comment><USER126> I just started running about 14 weeks ago. I'm 26, 27 in October. I just ran my first half marathon (13.1 miles), and I'm aiming to run 30 miles when I turn 30. I'd like to do it in a respectable time too.

</comment><comment><USER35> I want to present at SXSW. I couldn't tell you precisely why, I just think it's a great conference and I love to share knowledge. The free badge wouldn't hurt.

ROADBLOCK: honing in on a subject. I can only submit one proposal (which is due tomorrow), or, hope to get picked for someone else's panel. Here are potential panel ideas:

\- Website Optimization Basics: I wrote a post a few months back that was popular on HN, about how I reduced page load time by 75% ([http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/wordpress-optimization- drea...](http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/wordpress-optimization-dreamhost- rackspace/)). I would boil down the technical jargon to simple language. It would be a dual presentation with the engineer that gave me most of the advice I used.

\- Reverse-Engineering Visual Design: I would explain some of the classic principles and methods that designers use to make the decisions they do when designing for the web. I presented on this at BarCamp Chicago a couple of years ago ([http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/design-for-the-coders- mind-...](http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/design-for-the-coders-mind-reverse- engineering-visual-design/)), so I have something to start with, but it still needs more juice.

\- Everything You Already Know About SEO: the basics of SEO are stupidly simple, and widely known, but there are many misconceptions and unknowns. I would condense and explain all of the best practices and things that we _do_ know about SEO, and how to use them to grow your business.

\- How to Get a Date Online: I have an alter-ego through which I give online dating tips (<http://onlinedatingmatchmaker.com>). I would talk about how to best represent the interesting aspects about yourself, present communication techniques for opening with matches and securing dates, and present data from studies that suggest provocative things, such as why you should lie on your online dating profile ([http://www.onlinedatingmatchmaker.com/lie-online- dating-prof...](http://www.onlinedatingmatchmaker.com/lie-online-dating- profile/)). I actually got a personal message from Hugh Forrest only minutes after submitting this presentation idea last year - about how much he liked the idea - but I guess it didn't make it through the selection process.

Another ROADBLOCK is my relative lack of speaking experience. I find it hard to get motivated about smaller speaking opportunities like BarCamp or Peca Kucha, so I'm not sure where to find mid-level speaking opps to hone my chops.

A BOTTLENECK is my relative lack of notoriety, or having a "thing." As you can see a variety of topics interest me, but I can't yet be thought of as "the four-hour workweek guy" or "the personal finance guy"

Any advice, or opinions on which panel I should propose, would be appreciated! Thanks - I love this thread!

<comment><USER127> I'd say talk about "Reverse-Engineering Visual Design". As a coder who understands some of the basic principles of design but just can't seem to make it click, that would be the most interesting for me.

Optimization and SEO are nice, but if you don't have a solid design they're not that useful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER128> Get my "C" rating in Foil at a USFA-sanctioned fencing tournament.

</comment><comment><USER129> Get back into amateur bodybuilding and compete in another show.

</comment><comment><USER130> My most recent life goal is to learn how to shave with a straight razor... Don't ask me why, just seems like a cool skill to learn and someday pass down to my sons.

<comment><USER131> I expressed interest in same. My wife bought me a nice introductory model (german-made) but the pressure required (and angle of attack at my throat!!!) to get any hairs cut scares the dickens out of me. Now it is slowly rusting in my bathroom...

<comment><USER130> Exactly why I've been putting it off. I thought about paying an old school barber for an hour of his time to show me the ropes and the "gotchas"

<comment><USER131> So long as his name is not Sweeny :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER132> Get a programming gig in the UK. Roadblocks: (1) Language barrier, my spoken English is not as good as it should. (2) Non working experience in the country.

</comment><comment><USER133> To be honest, my primary goal in life is to be a saint. Second to that is helping others with the same.

Roadblocks: Human nature. But grace overcomes that.

</comment><comment><USER104> Stop consultancy work and focus on product building, move to Berlin (happening in a few weeks) and learn German upto A2 level.

</comment><comment><USER134> I guess Facebook will reveal these details.

</comment><comment><USER135> Goal: Moving to Lapland.

Roadblock: There are no job opportunities for a software developer in that area.

</comment><comment><USER114> I want to start my own private equity firm, and then my own Fortune 500 company.

Sky's the limit, right?

</comment><comment><USER136> Spend more time lurking on hacker news.

...oops, I posted, guess every goal has some setbacks.

</comment><comment><USER137> To write business book management lessons I learned while working for Oprah.

Bonus: My NDA

</comment><comment><USER138> Fully realize who I am, what I have, and what I am capable of.

<comment><USER139> Check out the book Zen and the Art of Making a Living by Laurnce G. Boldt. I just finished reading it and it's really inspiring/helpful in that regard.

<comment><USER138> That looks interesting... funnily enough zen is my current practice, and it's impact on my living has been and continues to be profound.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER140> Play more hockey.

</comment><comment><USER141> Antigravity boots. Funding. Gravity.

</comment><comment><USER142> not exactly a life goal , but my next personal goal is to get my padi divemasters certification.

</comment><comment><USER143> To make something people love.

<comment><USER138> You do that every day...

<comment><USER143> How so?

<comment><USER138> Look in the mirror. (apologies for the glibness)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER144> get independient

</comment><comment><USER145> Contemplating how to ask a girlfriend of 2 years how to take it to the next step when her view has been soured by a late parental divorce.

<comment><USER146> Asking someone to marry you (I assume that's what the next step is- maybe it's something else) when you don't know what the answer will be pretty much only happens in movies. And it's not a good idea.

I was just at a friend's wedding last weekend, am engaged myself, and four other friend pairs are also engaged. In all of these cases, we discussed marriage extensively with our partners before anyone was officially asked. We all knew what the answer was going to be.

If you want to consider going to the next step, you should bring up marriage casually in conversation. If she sounds like she's just not into it, she's either going to say no, or say yes because of pressure when she doesn't really mean it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER147> To be the man who donates the most and the man who owns the least, at the same time.

Bottlenecks: My empathy is ridiculed by the way I live. I believe I can make more of a difference in a position of power then if I just move somewhere and work as a volunteer for the rest of my life. Though to get to power I have to live in this world which I hate.

<comment><USER148> Know Life.

<comment><USER147> One day I might understand that

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER149> To write a novel.

Bottleneck: Lack of discipline, perhaps also lack of life experience to make it truly meaningful and classic and maybe also lack of other softer skills such as how to convey in writing different accents or manners of speaking of different people.

<comment><USER10> As a roadblock helper:

Have you heard of Nanowrimo? <http://www.nanowrimo.org/> People get together and write an entire novel over November (50,000 words). I have actually done it twice.

You're probably thinking of saying something like "how can you ever write a good novel in just a month?" The point of Nanowrimo, though, is to get you to ignore your internal critic.

The reason that everyone wants to write a novel, but people rarely get too far (and I can see this in your comment) is because people are too concerned with writing the _best possible novel they can write_ , and let down when it doesn't come out that way. This is why people run into writer's block: they endlessly self-criticize, and they can't sneak out a word past their highly critical self.

Do Nanowrimo. Write the worst novel in the world, if that's what it takes. But you need to get rid of your internal critic. Or at least silence him until the editing stage. Then he can come out and go on a rampage. But he is useless when you are trying to brainstorm. You'll never get anywhere if you set out to make a meaningful, classic book.

<comment><USER149> Thank you. I suppose it might be of help to many people, but, I would not fancy the pressure.

I am not being stopped by an internal critic. I have written a bit and I quite like what I have write, I was very much pleasantly surprised in fact. I do think though that if it will give me full satisfaction I should perhaps learn of ways of speaking by different people and also I plan to take some acting classes which might be of help.

But yeh I do think I will need some time, I think it will be a life project and probably never be published. I don't want to be a writer. I enjoy writing though, a lot, especially when you at some point you are not really the writer but witnessing and thinking wow where on earth did that come from, its coool!

How did your novels go though?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER150> enough passive income to live on

Tesla Roadster

help a loved one to get cured of a horrible health problem

not necessarily in that order, and not necessarily interesting to others, but they are among my top goals right now

</comment><comment><USER151> Attempting to get TX/RX Labs (<http://www.txrxlabs.org>), the first hackerspace in Houston, up and going. I've had lots of fun attempting to get a lawyer so we could get our 501(c)3 in the hopes that we can also get a larger workspace. I have gotten the webservers and website up in the nick of time, and I've got a bunch of stickers and t-shirts I will be selling at the Next HOPE and at DEFCON 18 for the group, and adding a party/membership drive in Houston on the same weekend as HOPE will probably get us enough members to get over a vital hump so we can offer more to our members.

I also get to go through the same drill with Locksport International (<http://www.locksport.com>). In fact, visit the Lockpicking Village at The Next HOPE and DEFCON, or Security Snobs (<http://www.securitysnobs.com>) and buy some lockpicks or t-shirts to help your fellow hackers!

</comment><comment><USER152> 1) Overcome my periods of overwhelming lack of passion and focus, that could potentially be rooted in some medical things

2) Write a few philosophical fiction books

3) Run a Micro ISV while I'm writing those books :)

I guess none of these are unique to us all here, but they're my current life goals.

</comment><comment><USER153> My goal is to create a new programming language (sort of - in so far as I can talk about it). If monetized properly it would be worth billions. Questions is, should I incubate it myself, which will take longer, but be very financially rewarding, or work on it openly so that better minds than mine can make it better - but then no money for me... (except perhaps on the conference circuit!)

<comment><USER154> Is this a joke, or what?

<comment><USER153> No. What part do you find funny/absurd?

<comment><USER154> You think you can make billions on a programming language? The only popular language that I can think of that isn't free is C#, so people are going to have options.

You talk about it as though it would be easy, but promotion, debugging, libraries, support, tutorials, HOLY SHIT it's not easy.

<comment><USER153> Well either I'm stupid and/or completely inexperienced, or I have a really good system. I take it you assumed the former. :-) Thank you for answering. I initially thought you were saying that the "go for money vs go for open source" question was a joke.

<comment><USER154> Just sounds like you have a bad case of "shit's easy" syndrome, as Yegge said when I was reading him yesterday.

<comment><USER153> Never said it was going to be easy. My question, in fact, was whether I should have it take longer by doing it myself, or open it up to the community to get it done faster.

<comment><USER154> Good luck...</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


AirPods 2 Teardown - <AUTHOR> https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/AirPods+2+Teardown/121471 <comment><USER2> Side note, this teardown is very well done, and organized. I don't think I've ever seen these before, but I'm a big fan. I love how easy it is to digest, and all the supporting media for it is great. Awesome detail, and very informative!

<comment><USER3> _I don 't think I've ever seen these before_

You've...never seen an iFixit teardown before? Much like discovering the alt- text of XKCD years after you started reading it, you've got some back catalog to catch up on.

And if you ever get the DIY itch, they'll sell you every tool they use. Decent quality kit, too.

(EDIT: and to those of today's 10,000 with regards to XKCD, I am so, so sorry. Enjoy the rest of your non-productive day!)

<comment><USER4> I'm one of today's 10,000 then. I didn't know about alt-text!! Does every XKCD contain alt-text?

<comment><USER5> Haha yeah pretty much! I think there's one our two where the alt text is just "..." or something like that, but it's always there. A lot of the pictures in his what if posts have an alt text too!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> My main interest is in Bluetooth 5. Walking around NYC, in even semi-congested areas of Manhattan, my audio cuts out with my phone in my front pants pocket. I literally have to hold it in my hand or coat pocket in order to cut through the interference. Has anyone experienced improvement when upgrading in this regard?

<comment><USER7> > My main interest is in Bluetooth 5

Bluetooth 5 does not help you here at all. Stereo audio is still done over Bluetooth classic which has not been updated since version 2.1

source: i work on bluetooth

<comment><USER6> Ah, damn. I'd heard from other sources when Bluetooth 5 was first coming out that increased bandwidth was part of the spec, so I was hoping that would resolve my congestion woes. 2.4ghz is unusable at some points in the city. It's rumored that's why the 7 train's CBTC setup took so much longer than planned.

<comment><USER7> Yes. Bluetooth low energy in Bluetooth 5.0 now supports two megabits per second data rate, up from the previous speed of 1 megabit per second. The problem is, none of that matters for audio, because audio is never sent over bluetooth low energy. It is sent over Bluetooth classic. The specification for audio over Bluetooth low energy is not out yet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> How can anyone in their right mind claim that Apple is a 'green' company?

In 5-10 years we will have 10s of million dead and useless AirPods due to degraded and broken batteries. So much unnecessary e-waste!

<comment><USER9> In 5-10 years we'd have the same number of "million dead and useless AirPods" even if they had replaceable batteries, because by that time we'd have the next model with new features, design, etc.

The green thing is not to expect a company like Apple to merely add batteries, but to not consume as much, and to get stuff that works long term and is not prone to such improvements (e.g. a good old pair of high quality wired cans you keep for decades). Of course they keep removing stuff like the headphones jack too. In my idea government, that move would incur a hefty environmental fine by itself.

The "Apple is Green" etc, is environment-theater, as is "recycling".

<comment><USER10> > In 5-10 years we'd have the same number of "million dead and useless > AirPods" even if they had replaceable batteries, because by that time we'd > have the next model with new features, design, etc.

Earbuds aren't cell phones—there's not a lot you can add. You can improve audio quality but that happens at a slow pace, and much of the public doesn't care.

I don't think all that many people would rush to replace a $200 product after two years if the original had a longer usable life.

<comment><USER9> > _Earbuds aren 't cell phones—there's not a lot you can add._

I can think of enough stuff. New Bluetooth standards, longer lasting charge, better audio drivers, health monitoring, embedded connection-free translation (babelfish-like), eSIM and calling/receiving directly from the AirPods (like you can do from the Apple Watch, but using Siri for the dialing). And those are just off the top of my head.

Heck, just the same model available in black too, would make tons of people replace their AirPods 3-4 years after they got them.

<comment><USER10> > New Bluetooth standards, longer lasting charge, better audio drivers, health > monitoring, embedded connection-free translation (babelfish-like), eSIM and > calling/receiving directly from the AirPods (like you can do from the Apple > Watch, but using Siri for the dialing).

Most of these hinge on the earbuds becoming more self-sufficient computing devices, rather than pure audio devices. I think we're a long way off from that becoming practical, because battery tech is improving at too slow a pace.

<comment><USER9> Yeah, but we're talking 3-4 years between each step. Those are enough features for 4 such iterations, or 16+ years.

Let's consider phones 16 years ago and today (or watches, for that matter).

<comment><USER10> They're mostly one step.

> Embedded connection-free translation (babelfish-like), eSIM and > calling/receiving directly from the AirPods

This all fundamentally requires a powerful computer in the Airpods, which in turn fundamentally requires a longer laster battery. Apple may try to roll them out over time, but they can't begin the rollout until battery technology fundamentally improves, which it isn't doing in the near future short of some breakthrough.

The one big improvement I could see them doing more near-term is health monitoring, though I'm not sure what it would add compared to the watch, which is more likely to be always on your person. Bluetooth upgrades and audio drivers are "easy" (relatively), but hard to sell to consumers by themselves.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Earbud holder is a strange place to put a wireless charging dock -- I always thought there are two prongs that get magnetically attached to charging ports.

Inductive charging is only about 60% efficient, so in theory you only get 398*0.6=238.8mAh of charge, which is a little bit more than a single full recharge of 2x93mAh earbuds.

<comment><USER12> It's never been the buds themselves that charge wirelessly. Qi charging can top up the case, which itself then tops up the buds via direct contact while everything is packed up in your pocket.

<comment><USER11> You are right, wireless charging chip is only present on the case.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> You can get good knockoffs ("i12 TWS") for ~$25 delivered from China, these days.

If it's the combination of non-repairability and price that bothers you, a 6x price warp sure softens the blow.

<comment><USER13> Have you actually tried these?

interesting that these knockoffs claim Bluetooth 5.

<comment><USER7> Every feature added to bluetooth since version 2.1 has been optional, so you can take any BT 2.1 chip and validly claim it is a BT 5.0 chip (it just lacks all the optional features).

source: i work on bluetooth

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> How are those battery terminals connected to the logic board - it has no connector header, just flat leads? Hard to keep up with miniaturization of connectors!

</comment><comment><USER15> Would love to see a teardown of the cheap knockoffs, like the i12 TWS types..

</comment><comment><USER16> Pointless(And fuck-ugly IMO), but the engineering on display is very impressive.

<comment><USER17> I agreed with you... before I picked up a pair. As with several of Apple's best products, the reality of using them exceeds what you'd expect from merely reading about them. The iPad was the same way for me when they came out.

I bought an LTE iPad a couple of years ago, and had been using Sony Bluetooth headphones for some time for conference calls and such. I was at PyCon and my headphones crapped out on me - since I use them for work daily, my employer was reimbursing me anyhow and I decided to go ahead and splurge on AirPods.

WOW. Just wow. I found myself pairing them to my iPad and purposefully leaving it uncovered in my backpack while walking around so I could talk to Siri. I had a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge at the time, and while I was very happy with it, I went out the next week and bought an iPhone X primarily so I'd be able to access Siri from my AirPods more easily and without having to leave the cover off my iPad.

I've since upgraded my iPad to an 11" iPad Pro - and all because of the AirPods, honestly. I've spent almost $3k in total because of them, and am happy with that.

<comment><USER18> I bought into the hype as well even with every angle of my headphones covered (JayBird for workouts, Bose SoundSports for all-day/work, Sennheiser Momentum over-ears for quality), probably a drunken buy, but it's kind of replaced my all-day pair. The no-wires thing is kind of nice, but really it's how well they work with other apple products that does it for me. First pair of bluetooth headphones that didn't annoy the shit out of me until I just went back to wired.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> And the repairability score is _zero_.

I am quite concerned about these all ending up in landfills due to battery degradation. Apple claims it can "recycle" them, but that's legitimately hard to believe.

I would not feel morally comfortable owning one of these.

<comment><USER19> Considering that Apple will send you prepaid shipping label to recycle your devices, I don't expect they would just toss them in the landfill.

<comment><USER10> So what, plausibly, do you think they might be doing?

I generally operate under the belief that companies avoid outright lying, particularly major ones like Apple. But, they may be stretching the truth, such as by salvaging a neglible amount of material and then chucking the rest. I'm not seeing a clear process on how they could do more than that.

Also, even if Apple _is_ able to extract and reuse the metals or some such, the complete inability to swap out the batteries without destroying the device, _combined with_ reports that battery capacity reaches unusable levels within a couple years, is of great concern.

<comment><USER3> _So what, plausibly, do you think they might be doing?_

It's LifeHacker, consider the source:

[https://lifehacker.com/how-to-recycle-your- airpods-183357932...](https://lifehacker.com/how-to-recycle-your- airpods-1833579320)

"In a phone conversation, an Apple spokesperson confirmed that these AirPods are then distributed to recyclers who specialize in electronic waste along with instructions on how to break apart the components."

<comment><USER20> Then they appear at Aliexpress with fresh batteries for half the price.

<comment><USER10> From the teardown, it doesn't seem possible to replace an airpod's battery without destroying it.

<comment><USER20> Never underestimate Chinese low-fi engineering genius.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Suddenly Vladimir Putin Meets Vitalik Buterin, Endorses Ethereum - <AUTHOR> https://cointelegraph.com/news/suddenly-vladimir-putin-meets-vitalik-buterin-endorses-ethereum <comment><USER2> The largest buyers of Ethereum will be USD holders. That reduces demand for USD and is good for Russia.

<comment><USER3> But woundnt it take a VERY sizeable shift to truly reduce demand? How much would you say that might take ?

<comment><USER2> A lot would have to happen, I'm sure. For Mr. Putin, giving approval to someone who is doing all the work is next to free.</comment></comment></comment>